Whitecaps swap balls for books to support Raise-a-Reader

David Ousted of the Vancouver Whitecaps and his 13-month-old daughter Noelle read to children at a Vancouver Public Library event.

Photograph by: Mark van Manen
, Vancouver Sun

On the soccer field, Whitecaps midfielder Matt Watson never quits.

The tenacious player, who follows a vegan diet and is in top shape, knows how to put tremendous pressure on opponents who have the ball, often winning it back for his team.

But when he showed up at the Terry Salman branch of Vancouver Public Library on a warm summer evening with his wife Catherine and their two children, Evelyn, 4, and Theo, 2, he was just a dad doing his part for literacy.

Flanked by Whitecaps goaltender David Ousted and Whitecaps ambassador Carl Valentine, Watson read a story about a dad with 10 children while kids jiggled and snuggled up to their dads on the floor around him.

Everyone agreed that was an awful lot of kids. Maybe too many.

“I always had a lot of books around my house when I was growing up in England,” Watson explained while the noise in the library ebbed as dads packed up their young progeny to head home for baths, bedtime and maybe some more stories.

One of Watson’s favourite times of the day as a child was when his mom and dad read to him before bedtime to settle him down.

He looks back fondly on reading stories like The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Aesop’s Fables.

That is why, despite his sometimes busy soccer schedule, he finds time to read to his two kids, although he admits Catherine, or Cat as she is often called, reads to them more than he does.

“Theo’s favourite book is definitely a book about trucks and tractors and cars. He is two years old so he doesn’t know all the words. It’s very simple. It just has the names of the vehicles.”

Evelyn seems to favour the Olivia books, a series that is popular with little girls.

Here to support The Vancouver Sun’s Raise-a-Reader campaign, Ousted and Valentine also took turns reading to the kids, pausing for dramatic emphasis, holding up the book so they could see the illustrations and pausing to hear what their pint-sized listeners had to say.

Ousted, the newest Whitecap to sign with the team this summer, is very vocal on the field, often scolding defenders who miss the mark.

He was also very vocal in the library, reading to the kids in a steady, clear voice while trying to keep tabs on 13-month-old daughter Noelle, who seemed to see the reading session as an occasion for much bouncing around.

But no scolding by Ousted here. No game pressure.

Just a lot of happy faces.

Hailing from Denmark, he has more of a literary background than many. Not only did his parents read to him, his mother “wrote a little for herself and wrote some children’s books for me.”

He reads to his daughter mostly in Danish because he wants her to learn the language.

“When she can sit still, she enjoys being read to,” he said. Especially pop-up books.

Ousted himself is an avid reader, favouring Ken Follett books. Winter of the World is his latest read.

He feels that reading stretches the imagination and forms an important parent-child bond.

“I know a lot of things are digital now but getting a book in the hand, flipping through the pages and enjoying that is a wonderful thing,” said Ousted.

Library animator Adam Smith seemed to know how to pace the program to keep the kids’ rapt attention; no easy task. The session was part of the Vancouver Public Library’s award-winning program for dads, uncles, foster dads, granddads and male caregivers, called Man in the Moon.

Valentine said he wishes a program that mixes songs, books and lots of action had been around when his two daughters, now 19 and 27, were growing up. “I have never been in an environment like that and I think it’s just fantastic.”

Reaching back into childhood memories from England where he grew up, Valentine associates books with Christmas. There was always one wrapped up as a present.

“It was always something we were excited to get,” he said.

Whitecaps president Bob Lenarduzzi said he doesn’t read nearly as much as he would like to, but when he does, it is often biographies of sports heroes like Muhammad Ali and the famous Brazilian soccer player Pele.

He also made a point of reading to his children, now 30 and 26, when they were growing up.

“I would role-play when I read to them, trying to get into the characters,” he said. That helped to keep their interest.

His kids still remind him of their bedtime reading ritual. Such good times.

It has been a difficult year for the Whitecaps on the field, but Lenarduzzi remains proud of the Whitecaps’ record off the field.

“From a club perspective, we have made a conscious effort to be a part of as many things as we can in the community,” he said.

The Raise-a-Reader campaign has always figured prominently in the club’s schedule. It is one that gets circled on the calendar every year. You can bet Sept. 25, the day of this year’s campaign, stands out boldly.

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